In the manufacture of rigid magnetic recording media, it is the usual practice to coat both sides of a metallic disk with a magnetic coating material and then to orient the magnetic particles of the coating material before the coating dries completely. This is done by placing magnets on opposite sides of the coated disk immediately after it has been coated and before the coating has dried. The magnets on both sides of the disk present a magnetic field which extends substantially parallel to the plane of the disk. As a result, the magnetic particles are oriented generally in a circumferential direction with reference to the central axis of the disk. This orientation of the magnetic particles provides for greater recording quality of the disk and improves its packing density considerably, both highly desirable features.
While the foregoing technique is satisfactory for rigid disks, it is unsatisfactory for flexible or floppy disks because, as the disks are mounted for rotation, either in a vertical plane or in a horizontal plane, the motion of the disk is not stabilized because the flexibility of the disk causes it to deviate from the plane of its rotation. Thus, the magnets on opposite sides of the disks cannot function correctly because of variations in the magnetic field due to the wobbling or other unstable movements of the disk. Nonetheless, it is extremely desirable to have orientation of the magnetic particles of floppy disks to achieve the desired features mentioned above.
Because of the drawbacks associated with rotatably mounting of flexible magnetic disks to permit orientation of their magnetic particles, a need has arisen for an improved apparatus and method for mounting the disks to permit magnetic particle orientation during the manufacturing of the disks.